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1 Definition
To speak or write in a pompous, long winded way, often with more bluster than substance.
2 In Use
The senator bloviated for twenty minutes without once answering the question he'd been asked.
3 Word Origin
blaw O.E. · to blow, puff air → bloviate 19th c. American English
Bloviate is a homegrown American coinage from the mid nineteenth century, and it wears its origins with a wink. It fuses the old Germanic verb blow, meaning to puff out air, with the Latin sounding suffix seen in words like deviate, creating a mock scholarly finish for an informal, distinctly unscholarly act. The result was a word that pokes fun at its own subject: pompous talk gets a pompous sounding label. It slipped into political slang almost immediately and never really left, later getting a famous boost from President Warren G. Harding, who was known for using it himself.
💡Fun Fact
Bloviate enjoyed a long life as regional American slang before dictionaries caught up, and it owes much of its staying power to Warren G. Harding, who reportedly used the word to describe his own long winded speaking style with a kind of self aware pride. Language writers have pointed to Harding as the figure who helped push the term from local Ohio slang into national political vocabulary. Today it survives mostly in commentary about cable news pundits, blustery politicians, and anyone who mistakes volume and length for insight. It pairs nicely with words like windbag, though bloviate has the added flavor of sounding almost official while describing something entirely empty.
